"Cottage On The Hill"

Friday, April 20, 2012

Even though we have 5 acres here on the "Cottage on the Hill", we just can't be called a farm. Oh yes, we do have a large garden, a "barn", and yes livestock. I guess I can call our 2 little dogs livestock. Can't I? The 1st person that wants to butcher my dogs, can hop off line now :). Bo and Bear are my little protectors. As I am writing this, they both were in the kitchen barking endlessly. I just figured they saw their reflections in the back door. I got up to check on them and what do I see but 4 deer walking past the back door, the automatic security lighting went on and they just trotted by like they didn't care about the spotlights being on. I assume there were more before them since the dogs had been barking before I even got up to look. So there you go.....Livestock.
You know how we all have these special little things, maybe habits, whatever they are. Well when I 1st get up each morning, I walk into the bathroom and look out the window, it is the East window and I can check out.....I don't know what. But earlier this week I looked out and there in my garden.....eating something was a hen turkey! Happy as can be. I went in to tell Jim to come look "fast", hoping he would not miss seeing it since I was so proud that it got this close without fear. Jim turned and ran out the back door and scared it off faster then I could realize "oh my goodness, she was "eating something" in "MY" garden. That turkey wasn't cute anymore. Yep, now not only do we have to worry about BAMBIE, we now have TURKEY LURKEY. Livestock? No...No...No....No netting over the top of my garden. Jim just got the electric fence up today. That is enough. Whatever will be will be. That may be what sent the deer across the back of the house. Maybe, just maybe their little noses got a little shock-a-rue.
I did get some garden planted the last couple of weeks. The weather was in low 80's for a few days and now we are in the low 30's of a morning and got to mid 50's today. Hope I didn't jump the gun. I may be replanting green beans in a couple of weeks since they are showing their pretty little heads. This is the time of year when I want to have that garden out and ready for growing but it is really too early for some thing. I hope they can tough out this cool spell. We shell see.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Yes sir ree, I can now say that I am now for sure officially ready. For the Spring gardening, that is. Oh my gosh, I can hardly contain myself. There are plenty of you friends out there that understand my Joy, my Love, my real PASSION. I love to garden! Whether it is in my flower garden or my vegetable garden. Even though we have had an extremely mild Winter this year, able to open the windows a few times, there is nothing like getting those seed catalogs and planning for that 1st time that I get to go out and actually "play in the dirt". especially after a 3 week bout with bronchitis. Well, today I even got a bigger boost....The Lawn and Garden show was a great big shot in the arm for me this year. As I was walking out of the show, I saw a table with a book on it. I kept looking at it....it had my name on it. You have to understand, I have a very unusual name, "Roxie", yes it is spelled with "ie not y". There just aren't many of us and with that spelling. OK, I will have to confess, I know of 3 horses and 8 dogs with my name, oh and yes, there are those who have make a living dancing with poles. Anyway, I decided to stop and talk to Mike and Roxie. I found out that they live just a few miles away for here, in the old town of Lenexa, KS. I enjoyed my visit with her and her husband Mike. They were about to go on the stage and talk. Since I was headed out they gave me their notes for their stage presentation. I bought their book about gardening. I have attached their blog page to my favorite blogs. Please go and visit it. I was pleased to give them a tip on keeping deer from gardens. Since they live too far inside the city, they don't experience the deer "problem". I

"I tie the white plastic bags to metal re-bar rods, which we use to tie up plants, make climbing fences, etc with. Well these white bags work great during the early Spring and Summer when it is windy and the deer aren't sure what is blowing in the wind."

Yes, we finally have to put the 8' electric fence into place. I know, you think it is inhumane.....well, you wouldn't think so if you planted a big garden, 100' X 100'and the deer got in and destroyed all your hard work, leaving you unable to replant since the Spring planting season was well past. We have had many laughs about our deer problem, then it really gets old and we have to get serious.
You betcha, I have the gardening fever. Please don't give me the aspirin. I am so excited to start fighting Bambi!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Well here I am again...Hello everyone. It has been almost a year since I blogged last. Too much has happened since then. Right now as I am posting this it is late and I need to get to bed. All I am going to say Is "Welcome Fall" My favorite time of the year. Oh, don't get me wrong I absolutely love the Spring time. We just don't get to have much of a Spring these days. It seems to go from real cold to super hot. I love the Fall colors, smells, and the sweater/jeans weather. Indian Summer is the best. Real warm in the day time and those cool (not cold) evenings. Tonight we enjoyed chili. I just love it on cool,rainy days like today. Goodnight all. Good to be back.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Right now I have an issue and I need to decide whether to be patient or have some grit (grit my teeth and deal with it). Pain that is. OK, I know what you are thinking……..”We all have to deal with pain”. Yep, that is so right. What I have noticed myself doing is just trying to deal with it on my own. You guessed it…..It isn’t working and the truth is, I know why. I have been trying to handle it all on my own. I can ignore it and it goes away, for a little while, anyway. But in such a short time it just isn’t bearable. I finally got it through my head what I am missing here. I need patience to wait upon the Lord to deal with or heal this thing. I know I still have to go through all the tests and whatever comes with the Drs. But there is still a calming effect to my sole since I give it to the Lord.

I know, you are wondering what in the world is going on. Well, for several months now I have been having these headaches in the back part of my head…below the occipital bone and the back neck bones and across my shoulders hurting. Well, that pain just got way too much in the last 2 months. My rheumatologist took ex-rays about a month ago and said that I would probably need therapy and maybe surgery as the spine in that area was no longer aligned. Of course I said “No Surgery”. Not until I exhausted every other thing first. I was sent to KU’s neck and spine, pain management center. I liked them because they suggested a series of 3 shots even before therapy. (I guess he read my mind that no one is touching my neck with the pain that I have been in). The nurse set up my three appointments… then I got a call that the pain Dr looked at my ex-rays again and wanted me to have an MRI before starting the shots. OK, I did make it through the MRI. But while I was in the cramped tube, I thought of Superman. Remember…..when he was a baby, his parents, who lived on another planet, put him in a tube like thing and sent him into space and he of course landed on the planet Earth. How did he do it for all those years? It wasn’t even two hours after I got home from my MRI that I got a call from my Dr’s office, again. This time they told me that they had already made an appointment for me for the next Friday— to get a Full Body Scan. The Dr found an “extreme amount of swelling at the base of the cranium”.

Now comes the patience………..The Full Body Scan was finished around 4:00 on Friday. I went in at 11:00 am to get the dye injected and told to come back at 2:30 to start the scan. They said that I would be able to get the results on Monday. Then, I had all weekend to wait to find out what the results would be. Well TODAY-Monday I got the results……They were looking for Cancer that they believed was causing the extreme amount of swelling. The 1st thing the nurse told me was, “The good news is we did not find Cancer in any of the body.” Since I knew it was Cancer that they were looking for, it sure made a long 10 days of waiting. Yes, I was thrilled and felt blessed to hear the good news so now is the long process of them trying to work with the pain that still exists. Now I wait 9 more days to begin my 1st in a series of 3 shots that will go into my C-3 vertebrae. I know that life must go on. I am now only thinking positive thoughts and allowing the Lord to help me deal with the pain as I wait……..Patience Roxie, the Lord is at work here.

Monday, October 18, 2010

I have been very busy preparing my yard, vegetable garden and my flower gardens for the end of Summer, or should I say putting them to sleep for the Winter. I absolutely love the Fall season, with the cool evenings and the warm days. The trees across the road from us are so beautiful. When the afternoon and sun is shining bright, they actually brighten up my living room. I enjoy looking out of my large living room window and watching as the beautiful appearance of the new rich reds and orange and yellow colors added with the lingering green colors are so captivating that I think I can watch the colors change. The pungent smell of the smoke from the small leaf fires in the neighborhood is just another reminder I love, as long as that smoke, does not make its way into my house. Of course the reason that the smoke would be entering would be because of the open windows. Another of my favorite things is having open windows. Praise the Lord that we don’t have allergies, making us have our windows closed all the time. Nope, give me the chance to open my house windows with the beautiful weather and the outdoor sounds and I am a very happy woman.

I have been cutting back all the flowers that need their Fall trimming and all of the garden vegetables have been pulled, mulched and tilled under. Yep, absolutely nothing left in the vegetable garden. It looks sad yet beautiful at the same time. No more fresh vegetables grown by our own hands but I am loving it that the ground is now resting and will be ready for the early Spring plantings, something to look forward to during the long Winter months. And you can count on it, I will be planning it during those months.

While walking the dog down the road I am spotting all kinds of bugs and yes I enjoy seeing all of those cool woolly worms, who doesn’t like seeing the woolly worms every fall. This year they are dark on each end and light brown in between. Isn’t this supposed to mean something? I know the old farmers used to predict the Winters by such things. I know that last Fall they were all very black and we had the worst Winter since I was young. So now help me out here……..Does that mean that this year with have a rough Winter at the beginning and the end and calm in between? Just asking.

Soon the Fall rain season will come and the leaves will fall to the ground and the temperatures will start dropping both days and nights.

Yes, even though I love the Fall, I have a melancholy feeling during this time of the year. It must be because I am sad to say goodbye to all the flowers still blooming in the flower gardens. Honestly, I am never ready to say those goodbyes.

Monday, October 11, 2010

OK everyone, here I am in the blogger world. I may not be good at this, but I AM getting into it. A lot of women my age don't text, tweet, FB and hate to e-mail. I on the other hand am very old fashioned in some things but love the communication technology. I am a very blessed woman that might even be able to post a little information, and maybe some wisdom and inspiration every so often. Since I enjoy reading other blogs, I decided to jump in this with both feet. Can you get the vision of the big SPLASH!!!!! Hang with me now. Here I go.......

You have the place all to yourself for a whole day. Which will you be doing?

About Me

I am a wife, mother, grandma, and great grandma. In 1972 married my life partner Jim, a divorced, strapping, handsome, young, man. With him came his 4 little children, Cherie, Jamie, Angie and Mike. When the kids came over there was not a dull moment. We were later blessed with 2 children of our own. Joleene and Garen. We have 9 grandchildren. Jamie's children-Casey and Andrew, Joleene and Colby's children-Victoria, Jake, and Devon, and Callie. Garen's children-Aspen, Aiden. Then our 3 great grandchildren-Jamie's daughter Casey is married to David, they have Carson, Payton and Brighton. We are blessed. 7 years ago we moved to a little home, with 5 acres, that is on top of the highest locations in our area, hence "Cottage on the Hill". With a beautiful view we enjoy the natural beauty all around us, lots of deer that we love (and hate), wild turkey, fox and many other fun things. I love to spend time in the yard, my flower and vegetable gardens. We have some great hills to play on when the snow is on the ground. The grand kids just love it. I did work outside of the home but now you can see why I am Semi-Retired.